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Friday, June 6, 2008

Race Day Count Down: Day 9

My biggest fear of the marathon? Nausea. Whenever I approach the 18 to 20 mile mark nausea creeps up and then hits me hard at mile 22. Not only does it affects my performance, it also takes away from my overall enjoyment of the day. Last marathon I felt horrible for the last 6 miles. I just sucked it up and kept on plodding, but now it's come back to haunt me. After the race my wife made me a celebratory "marathon brunch" with all the trimmings. I could only stomach a couple of tiny mouthfuls of hash browns before I apologized and excused myself from the table. The nausea stayed with me until about 5 PM. I'm not sure of the cause. I used to think it was dehydration or gels, but now I'm not too sure. It's probably a combination of things. According to the Noakes book there are three possible causes of nausea during a marathon: 1) an increase of repeated bouts of exercise induced astro-esophageal reflux, 2) ingesting too much fluid, and 3) motion sickness caused by incessant up-and-down motion of the head. It's not clear which category my nausea falls into but I'm leaning towards too much fluid or esophageal reflux. I can control the amount of fluid I consume by simply drinking less, but I don't know to control the reflux (if indeed that is the problem). Any ideas? I'm considering taking some liquid Gravol at about mile 16 in the hopes this will help. Interestingly, some marathon runners attribute nausea and vomiting to dehydration and consume more fluids thinking it'll help when in fact it compounds the problem. Go figure!

If you haven't heard yet race kits can be picked up at University of Manitoba Investors Group Athletic Centre (Max Bell Centre) on Friday June 13 between 11 and 7, and again on Saturday, June 14 between 9 and 5.

I'll be running the 10 k portion of the Run For Rights tomorrow. Hope to see some of you there. Scroll down two weeks for information on this race.